Ebba Müller

Ebba Müller (b. Zahle) (1891-1967)

Shipowner and entrepreneur. She ran the family shipping company after her husband Hans Christopher Müller’s death. Ebba chaired the Faroese Shipowners Association for ten years. In 1954 she was awarded the Cross of the Order of Chivalry. She was highly engaged in charity work.

Ebba Müller depicted by Svend Poulsen (Bambus). Source: The National Museum of The Faroe Islands

Shipowner Ebba Müller died at the hospital in Tórshavn in 1967, aged 76. She was buried next to her husband high court lawyer Hans Christopher Müller. Ebba was born in Silkeborg, but moved to Copenhagen. She was a pupil at Nathalie Zahle’s renowned school. Later she studied banking and business and briefly lived with her uncle, politician Carl Theodor Zahle, however, she had to move into a pension when he was posted to Stege.

During her time at the pension in Gammel Kongevej she met her future husband, who was studying in Denmark. Ebba had been working at Privatbanken in Copenhagen for 7 years by the time they married in Slagelse in 1916. The couple moved to Tórshavn, where she became a homemaker. Her husband took over his father’s shipping business along with the DFDS representation, which had been in the Müller family since 1866. When Ebba was suddenly widowed in 1925, she agreed to take over these responsibilities.

Ebba served as a board member of the Faroese Fish Expert Organisation, Føroya Fiskaeksport, and chaired the Faroese Shipowners Association. In the memoir Minnislýsingar, Ebba’s son Eiden Müller recounts his mother saying to him: ‘The Faroese Shipowners Association entrusted me with this position as chair, which, given that I was a woman and not Faroese, still remains a great honour for me. I was chair for 10 years.’

The epilogue printed in the paper Dimmalætting on 28^th October 1967, nevertheless emphasises that charity work was her great passion: ‘The cause closest to Ebba Müller’s heart was, however, the Tórshavn asylum association dedicated to the aid of the town’s large families in need. This association was her idea to begin with, and to her dying day it was her fervent desire that this association should survive her passing.’

In 1935 she became one of the founders of the home craft industry association Føroya Heimavirkisfelag. She was chair of the organisation at the time of her death. In 1954 she was awarded the Danish Cross of the Order of Chivalry.

Sources:

Djurhuus, K. Ebba Müller. In: Dimmalætting 31^st October 1967. Tórshavn.

Fru Ebba Müller død. In: Dimmalætting 28^th October, 1967. Tórshavn.

Jacobsen, Randi: Ebba Müller in Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon på lex.dk. Las visited on 30^th October 2024 at https://kvindebiografiskleksikon.lex.dk/Ebba_Muller.

Müller, Eiden. Minnislýsingar. 1981. Tórshavn.

Vinur. Frú Ebba Müller farin. In: Sosialurin 1^st November 1967. Tórshavn.